Wow! Such a good movie.

Fantastic!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This engaging Jet Li epic is a throwback to the old glory days of the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA series, as Li adopts his trademark shaven headed, ponytail-wearing persona and battles villains in turn-of-the-20th-century China. Yep, it's a China that's being invaded by the West once more, so there are many themes revisited that'll be familiar to fans of Li's earlier films. This film had a lot of publicity when Li declared to the press that it was his last martial arts film – but by that he meant it was his last period flick ABOUT martial arts; he's shooting a modern-day cop thriller as I write!FEARLESS is clearly a good film, with an epic-feeling plot, a ton of good action scenes and a very good performance from Li, whose acting seems to get better with age. There are two parts to the film really; the first is a series of action spectacles as egomaniac Li ruthlessly defeats opponents, until his temper leads to tragedy and he undergoes a spiritual redemption, LAST SAMURAI style, in the second half of the film. The finale of the film is particularly strong, with a genuine surprise of a plot twist and some moving scenes interspersed with the action. It's clear that Li has never been better, and he's supported by sterling work from the likes of Yong Dong as his childhood buddy and the underused Masato Harada as yet another Japanese villain, almost exactly the same character he played in the Tom Cruise movie!Of course, it's the action that'll make or break a martial arts film, and the fights here are great: fluid, kinetic and scenery-busting all the while. Yuen Woo Ping works well with the choreography of the battles, which are only spoiled a little by the overuse of CGI. Okay, so some of the impossible moves can only be done through computers – I accept that – but do we have to see CGI wood smashing, people being thrown through CGI walls and the like? Old-fashioned props and scenics will always be far more convincing than the cartoon-style effects on offer here. Plus, the editing on the fight scenes pushes things to the max, with lots of unnecessary jump cuts that'll make you think your brain is going funny, missing frames (why?) and an attempt to out-stylise THE MATRIX! Saying that, at least the battles are pleasingly violent, no kiddie fare here. The highlight is a tremendous fight to the finish between Li and a fellow martial arts master that ends with a rib-snapping power-punch that I've never seen the like of before. Plus we get a ring fight with WARRIOR KING's Nathan Jones, that hulking he-man whose sheer presence and size adds to any film in which he appears. While a better director for the job could have been found (I mean, Ronny Yu? BRIDE OF CHUCKY's Ronny Yu?) FEARLESS is still a strong and effective epic-feeling yarn with plenty to recommend it.

Martial arts films tend to be rather over the top and fantastic in tone as a norm. As such it's refreshing to see one taking place in recent history and featuring actual historical people.Fearless tells the tale of Huo Yuanjia, the prodigious son of a long line of martial arts practitioners, who grows in the late 19th century China, in a nation that's buckling under the Western pressure and occupation. We see him growing from a cocky young fighter into a man that in his own way tried to preserve and protect the ideal that was and still is China.In my opinion this is Jet Li's finest film. He's everything the role needs him to be and then some. Absolutely perfect casting and one of the films where you can see that he actually has a lot of acting talent as well. Sure he can probably identify a lot with the role, but that only makes him so much better for the role. He can also pull off the more serious tone of the story in comparison to usual martial arts ware. Someone like Jackie Chan would be too comical and not arrogant enough for the role.Aside from that, it's a professionally done film. The production values are very high, the whole film looks and sounds great, the story has enough soul and depth behind it to convince and it's interesting to follow. The need to follow a historical story does make some of the plot twists seem a bit weird, because the film doesn't have enough time to give us the whole context, but that never becomes a major problem.Fearless is an excellent film to pick if you're looking for a more serious take on the martial arts genre, without giving up any of the quality or enjoyability.

So far I've never heard about wusu before. Martial arts movie just isn't my thing because they're all the same. What makes Fearless different and more interesting is because it's based in veridical facts.Fearless has its issues if we talk about what could be improved, but the important here is The Lesson. Jet Li's character Huo was a reckless child who grow up to be the greatest arrogant and superb wusu master of all time. And that's what drove him into ruins.Ascention, fall, and then redemption. Fearless teach us that the only way to fate your mistakes is by fighting yourself and finding the true meaning of this fight.The acting isn't bad, but nothing amazing, not even from Jet Li. The movie photography is clear and there's an amazing scene where the scenario passes through the four seasons that made me exclaim "what a nice picture editing!". I don't think I'll remember Fearles for it's plot, but it's well written and will keep you interested throughout the whole movie.Apart from that, fearless could be really better, just by excluding those takes where history is cutted off to explain us, what happened certain point of history. It seemed like directors was trying to save some time (and time is money). That could really be better and won't be that hard to do so.When watching Fearless, try to pay attention in the humility lessons, not only the history per se. You're gonna like it.

The grandeur and the simplicity of this martial arts epic root it in its history and milieu, and makes of the old China a tale that is at once a powerful myth and an expression of love for the simple truths evident in the hearts and minds of decent people, just as the greatest Hollywood Westerns showed America in an exemplary light as the product of the epic strivings of their emerging nation. Gunfight duels or wushu contests, the only difference is that China was then striving to re-emerge from foreign domination. Probably - pace the noble efforts of John Ford - this Chinese martial-arts film can praise and raise up for admiration and emulation its own heroes with a better conscience than the American western, since in the latter the victims are objectively the native Americans, who are only infrequently and Pyrrhically shown besting the white man - but never ultimately prevailing.I feel sure there is also a feeling in this film for the samurai epics of Kurosawa; there is in 'Seven Samurai' (for instance) something of the same transformative value as shown in the - at first grudging - service of swaggering but down-on-their-luck samurai warriors as protectors of scared peasants as we see when the hero of 'Fearless' - Huo Yuan Jia - is rescued, both physically and morally, through the fortunate connection he develops with the people at the rural heart of China, whose honest peasant simplicity saves him from the wreck of his previous life as an arrogant bully and wastrel: Again, there is the humbling of heroism which demonstrates the ultimate refinement of primitive savagery into a civilized and civilizing value - true, unassuming, socially contributory, unselfish, self-sacrificing, pure heroism. 'Fearless' gives to each of these tragic poles of human striving - aggression and sacrifice - their full moral weight, being at once horrific and spiritually healing, in just the manner - in fact - of the great dramatic precursors of both the Chinese theatre (tellingly referenced in an early scene), and of the ancient Greek drama or Icelandic sagas which stand like stark crags dominating all our western cultural landscapes.This is a film worthy to stand alongside the pity, terror and moral dignity of the greatest westerns. It exists at a penetrating point of existential sublimity very far distant from the aimlessly pretty butterfly flutterings of a pretentious, overblown romantic fantasy such as that darling of effete tastes, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.' Jet Li's portrayal of a great wushu warrior is every bit as noble a film hero as were any of the famous shootists of the Wild West whom Hollywood elevated to moral stature.